Here at Westgate we often talk about our success in building the corporate profile of our clients, but what do we mean by a corporate profile piece and how can these be used as part of an effective PR and marketing strategy?
PR is an excellent tool for raising awareness among key audiences, and profiling your business to a corporate audience provides a platform to deliver core business objectives whether you want to build relationships, increase your visibility amongst competitors, increase sales or generate new business leads. Corporate profile articles take an in-depth look at a company or brand considered by the journalist to have an interesting or innovative business strategy, a newsworthy opinion on an issue or leading the way in their industry. This really captures the attention of target audiences, and the editorial endorsement and increased visibility benefits the company’s brand image overall.
Business profile articles look in detail at the company’s history, core values and business strategy and are a fantastic way of really summarising a company. They are often researched by a face-to-face interview with the journalist who has commissioned them, which establishes a good working relationship and often leads to further coverage in a publication; being asked to contribute opinion pieces, blogs or commentary on industry trends and issues for example. These prestigious pieces of coverage communicate core messages about a company, for example if they are an expert or leader in their industry field, so before commencing any corporate profiling campaign it is fundamental to identify the company’s key messages and prepare the spokesperson undertaking the interview.
Having an engaging brand spokesperson is key, especially someone whose opinion is already respected within their industry. When preparing for a corporate profile interview, another tip is to remember that any journalist worth their salt isn’t just going to take what you are telling them at face value and they will have done their research – so be prepared to be challenged if your company has been at the centre of any controversy and be ready to discuss it, albeit briefly. We work with specialist media trainers to help clients develop their interview skills and prepare them to deal with any tricky questions.
It’s important to remember that although you know why your business is interesting, journalists are being constantly approached by PR agencies with great interview candidates. It is therefore imperative that we are able to offer journalists something unique, innovative or even controversial. Our role is to build a base awareness of the company or brand within our clients’ core media to serve as a platform for more in-depth coverage, establish a great relationship for our clients with our media contacts. Judging and advising when the time is right to roll out a corporate profile campaign is also key.
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